6B GAME DAY THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008 COUNTDOWN TO TIPOFF KU TIPOFF AT A GLANCE This game should be good hangover medicine for the Jayhawks. Perhaps other than Nebraska, Colorado is the best team to play after a big loss when you're looking for a victory. It will be interesting to see how Kansas reacts in its first game after its first loss. Odds are the players will be motivated and should build a big lead early against the hapless Buffaloes. Brandon Rush In the first game between Kansas and Colorado last season, Rush went for 21 points WHO TO WATCH and eight rebounds. He was upstaged by Richard Roby, who scored 30 with just 15 field goal attempts. The two of them are going to go at it, and Rush should be motivated to have a big game after not being a factor for his team in the second half against Kansas State. Does anybody remember the Harrisons? QUESTION MARK HEARYE, HEARYE D. J. and David Harrison used to drive Kansas fans mad with their aggressive, sometimes over-aggressive, play. D.J. was a guard and was two years older than David, a big man. He sometimes scowled at the Allen Fieldhouse crowd, but David really secured a place in negative KU lore when he got into squabbles with Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and Jayhawks fans. David is now in his fourth year with the Indiana Pacers and averaged 5.2 points a game for his career. "We have a really nice team, and we do a lot of good things. We weren't going to run the table as much as I wish we could, the players knew that wasn't going to happen. The chances of that happening were certainly remote." —Kansas coach Bill Self -Kansas coach Bill Self "You go on the road and if you score 70 points and you have good enough defensive rebounding, you should have a chance to win, but their guards played very well." JAYHAWKS ON THE REBOUND — Self on how Kansas didn't play badly on Wednesday KANSAS AT COLORADO 2:30 p.m., Coors Event Center, Boulder, Colo., ABC Kansas hopes to bounce back with win against Colorado Kansas (20-1,5-1) THE PROJECTED STARTING 5 Russell Robinson, 6-foot-1 senior guard Russell Robinson, 6-foot-1 senior guard Jayhawk guards did a good job offensively against the Wildcats on Wednesday, making 16 of 30 field goals, but they didn't defend well. Robinson didn't pressure Clent Stewart and Jacob Pullen as much as he should have. ★★☆☆ Mario Chalmers. 6-foot-1 junior guard Mario Chambers, 8-0-0-1 junior guard Same thing for Chalmers. He was excellent on the offensive side of the ball, making jump shots, layups and free throws, but he didn't pressure his man. Kansas needs to pick up plenty of steals against a bad Colorado team. ★★★☆☆ Braithwaite Rush, 6-foot-8 junior runner. Rush said he wasn't aggressive enough in the second half on Wednesday. He only scored three points after scoring 12 in the first half. Expect Rush to have a big game going against Richard Roby. He and Roby played together occasionally in high school and enjoy matching up against one another. Brandon Rush, 6-foot-6 junior guard ★★★★☆ Jackson only attempted two field goals against Kansas State. Part of the blame has to fall to the guards for not getting him the ball, but he must be more of an offensive option against quality competition. He should do fine against a weak frontline Saturday. Darnell Jackson, 6-foot-8 senior forward Colorado (9-11, 1-5) Darrell Arthur, 6-foot-9 sopho- more forward Arthur rebounded, scored, blocked shots and didn't turn the ball over in Kansas' last game. Too bad he only played 17 minutes because of foul trouble. Some part of Arthur's game always seems to be missing. THE PROJECTED STARTING 5 Sherron Collins, 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Collins came off the bench and quietly had a good game against the Wildcats. He scored 12 points and was not afraid to drive to the hoop. Collins can make it three straight games with double-figure scoring if he gets 10 or more against the Buffaloos. THE SIXTH MAN Roby's scoring average is down - 17.3 points per game to 16.5 - but his field goal percentage is up - 38.3 percent to 49.6 percent. Richard Roby, 6-foot-6 senior guard Marcus Hall, 6-foot-2 senior guard Hall gives Colorado a second scoring option with 12.6 points per game. The Austin, Texas, native also is averaging 3.8 assists per game. Marcus Hall, 6-foot-2 senior guard Higgins is playing an average of 31.8 minutes per game in his freshman campaign. His father, Rod, is the general manager of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. KANSAS 15 Cory Higgins, 6-foot-5 freshman guard ★★★☆☆ Xavier Silas, 6-foot-5 sophomore guard Silas is third on the team in scoring an average of 10.2 points per game this season. He's hit just 18-of-58 from beyond the three-point line. Coach Jeff Bzdelik has some crazy scheme that fools the Jayhawks and makes this a close game. Bzdelik, the first-year man for the Buffalooes, is a great coach. In the past, Bzdelik coached the Denver Nuggets. After that, he transformed Air Force into an NCAA Tournament-caliber team before taking a job with Colorado. His teams usually run a Princeton-style offense with lots of motion, screens and backdoor cuts. The system could give Kansas fits for a while. PHOG ALLEN WILL ROLL OVER IN HIS GRAVE IF... Mark Dent Marcus King-Stockton, 6-foot-9 junior forward The Buffaloes don't have much front-court depth. King-Stockton is the only Buffalo over 6-foot-7 who plays major minutes. THE SIXTH MAN Jermyl Jackson Wilson, 6-foot-6 junior forward Jackson-Wilson started his career at Ohio State, and averaged 8.0 points per game last season as a sophomore. His numbers are down this year - he's playing an average of 19 minutes and scoring 4.5 points per game. THE COORS EVENT CENTER WILL BE MOVIE- THEATER SILENT IF... -Rustin Dodd Everything goes according to plan for Kansas. This game should be nothing. The Jayhawks are superior to the Buffaloes at every position and have a deeper bench. Kansas needs a big victory to gets its confidence back up, and that probably won't be to hard to do. Expect all the starters and Sherron Collins to score in double figures. CU TIPOFF ATAGLANCE Coach Jeff Bzdelik has tried to cultivate a winning culture in his first season at Colorado. The result? They've been a work in progress. Colorado is 9-11 overall, 1-5 in the Big 12, and comes to Saturday's game losers of four straight games. The Buffaloes looked listless at a 57-41 loss against Iowa State on Tuesday. Colorado is led by senior guard Richard Roby's 16.5 average points per game. History hasn't been kind to Colorado. Kansas has won 36 of its last 37 games against Colorado. The only Buffalo victory came in 2003, when Colorado slipped by Kansas 60-59. WHO TO WATCH Richard Roby, 6-foot-6 senior guard Roby has put up solid ruby on numbers on bad teams for almost four years. Roby — Colorado's fourth all-time leading scorer — is averaging Roby 19 points and 7.6 rebounds in his last 11 games. Roby and K-State's Bill Walker are similar players with similar abilities, but unlike Walker, who can play inside and outside. Roby plays primarily on the perimeter. Will Colorado fans outnumber Kansas' supporters? QUESTION MARK The Kansas game has traditionally been the only sellout of the year at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo. But most of those fans have usually been Kansas fans from western Kansas who traveled to Boulder for a chance to see the Jayhawks live. To prevent a pro-Jayhawk crowd, Colorado implemented a ticket policy where prospective single-game ticket buyers had to buy tickets to other Colorado games – in addition to the Kansas game. HEAR YE. HEAR YE "Roby's good but he's not as good as he used to be. His freshman season he was really good." Russell Robinson on Colorado guard Richard Roby LAYHAWK STATS
PlayerMPGFG-FGA3FG-3FGARPGPPG
00 Arthur, Darrell23.1119-2232-105.913.5
32 Jackson, Darnell24.5106-1602-47.212.5
15 Chalmers, Mario29.081-15136-752.812.3
25 Rush, Brandon26.980-18438-875.112.2
04 Collins, Sherron22.853-11820-551.99.2
24 Kaun, Sasha17.557-860-03.97.2
03 Robinson, Russell26.843-10521-642.57.2
05 Stewart, Rodrick14.632-623-132.84.0
02 Teahan, Conner3.715-2511-180.63.1
45 Aldrich, Cole8.924-470-03.33.0
14 Reed, Tyrel7.615-309-210.52.4
10 Case, Jeremy5.712-356-200.41.7
11 Bechard, Brennan1.84-82-50.31.2
54 Kleinmann, Matt2.42-60-00.70.4
22 Buford, Chase1.81-90-60.50.2
40 Witherspoon, Brad1.70-30-20.20.0
PREDICTION 87-51 Kansas The Jayhawks will receive a big victory to help ease the pain somewhat from Wednesday night's loss. This Colorado game is just a pit stop before another rivalry game with Mizzou on Monday. Witherspoon Meter Will senior walk-on Brad Witersonsp get the opportunity to play tonight? This meter tells all. BUFFALO STATS Layer MPG FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA RPG PPG 23 Roby, Richard 33.6 117-236 27-69 6.5 16.5 01 Hall, Marcus 36.3 92-206 32-87 4.2 12.6 13 Silas, Xavier 31.2 62-158 18-58 3.2 10.2 11 Higgins, Cory 31.8 59-128 18-52 4.1 8.1 24 Knutson, Levi 18.1 33-76 18-50 1.5 5.0 31 Jackson-Wilson, Jermyl 19.0 39-84 0-2 1.5 4.5 12 Thorne II, Dwight 13.5 18-42 4-18 1.4 3.0 32 King-Stockton, Marcus 15.3 17-33 0-2 3.3 2.6 21 Patterson, Caleb 9.0 6-23 1-8 1.6 1.8 25 Zehnder, Andrew 2.8 2-3 1-1 0.0 1.3 44 Beckley, Trent 2.6 0-0 0-0 0.4 0.4 14 Coney, Javon 3.0 1-2 0-1 0.2 0.4